Stuff Inc

Worked at Stuff for just over a year. They recently apparently hired too many agents and flooded the platform, so there suddenly wasn't enough work to go around. They've now deactivated a very large number of their agents, myself included. 

The job was stressful, in large part due to the way they go about 'quality assurance'. Fellow agents are assigned to rate every task you handle, and because management is not clear on how they would prefer certain tasks be handled, the rating process is very dependent on each individual agent's opinion. More times than I can count, I received a 0 (out of 5) star rating on a task, simply because I did not go about handling it the same way that the agent who rated me might have - despite the fact that the client's request was taken care of and they were left satisfied with no complaints. Management is not concerned about this - perhaps because each rating affects your overall Agent Score, and that score determines your hourly pay rate. They used to encourage agents to contact them when they received an inaccurate rating - they now are very clear that agents should not bother doing so unless the problem with the rating was caused by a technical issue.

There are SO many bugs on the website - agents do all of their work from Stuff's website dashboard, but because Stuff is constantly updating things and implementing new features, there seems to be a new bug every day. These bugs oftentimes would prevent you from being able to complete a task at all (on several occasions they prevented any agents from being able to work at all, meaning we all were forced to log out for the day and lose out on a full day's pay). 

Communication between agents and management is horrible. We used to be able to message whichever manager was online through a chat function on the dashboard (like if you had a task with a big issue and needed a manager to tell you how you should proceed, or if the task needed to be turned over to management to be handled). They removed that function altogether - we now have absolutely no way to reach out to a superior. We can email them, but can't expect a response till a few hours later (at best). 

Finally, the 'training' is a mess. Essentially, you're sent to a page that has a handful of 3-minute videos where someone talks you through the very broad strokes of how to use the main features in the dashboard. These videos are often completely outdated, since management is constantly changing and updating the dashboard. They have a Wiki page where you're supposed to be able to go to find out how to deal with certain issues, but there's really not a lot of helpful information there (again, because so much of it is outdated and no longer relevant to the new format of the dashboard). There's very much a sense of, 'if you run into a problem, you're on your own to figure it out. Oh, and don't forget, you'll be graded for how well you handle it'. 

Stuff, as a workplace, has a lot of potential, but until they work out some of these huge issues, it's a really difficult and stressful place to work. If you are even kept on, that is - because they seem to be constantly hiring agents, before waitlisting/removing them from the platform just weeks later. 

This job would be great if they had a better organizational structure. They rely on agents for everything. If the need help? You contact other agents, and sometimes you get agents who just started and can't answer your questions. Then, you need to go through the whole process again in hopes of getting someone who knows the answer. They also gave me the ability to rate other agents' work after I had only been working for 5 days. The ratings are the way you can keep your job. If you drop below 4.3, you get fired. How is it fair to have brand new agents who have no idea how to do the job rating agents work who have been there for months? It is impossible to get in contact with management in any way. It seems like the creators of this business decided they don't want to do any work and leave it all up to the new agents running around with their heads cut off. The ratings, which can get you fired, are completely inconsistent and based on the person reviewing its opinion. They think you should've asked the client what time they want to schedule their appointment even though they already answered that question? One star rating, and one step closer to being fired. The "training videos" aren't updated to the new software. So if you need help, you can't rely on those. When you reach out for help you get "help" from newbie agents who have no idea how to do the job and most of the time they give you information that if you follow it, you'll get a bad rating. It would honestly be a great company to work for if the owners/managers were more involved and didn't push everything onto the agents. They absolutely need a new CEO. I'm in my first year of business school and even I know about organizational structure and effective communication. If you wanna save yourself the stress and headache, don't work here. If you have no choice, it pays decent.

I started working for Stuff Inc back in September of 2020. My interview process was strange as I never actually interviewed with anyone just did a test and then was hired. I enjoyed the work as a virtual assistant needing her start I thought it was a great start. The work was very minimal though so I had to eventually find other work. Eventually, changes in management began taking place as well as changes in expectations. It was hard to keep up especially when they don't outright train you except for making you watch a Loom video and then doing an assessment on it. You are also rated on your performance but you never know what your rating is. Eventually, I was "wait-listed" a few weeks before Christmas. Basically being wait-listed is the same as being laid off.  You can still log in to the portal but you cannot get tasks. I was brought back in January only to be wait-listed again in March. Then finding out that they are hiring for more people instead of training and helping the team that they have to grow with them they just drop people that are underperforming or not fulfilling expectations without warning. And then you are still on their email list so they send emails about raises in pay and new bonuses which is honestly like twisting the knife. I consider myself a hard worker and I did everything I could to make sure I was following all expectations. Again without any real training as to how they want things just whatever I saw in those training videos they sent. So to be waitlisted a second time and then find out I am missing out on more pay and possible bonuses felt really low and entirely unprofessional. 

Things I love about working this job:

-Flexibility : I can work (or not work whenever I want) -Decent pay: $13 per hour to start is great but getting a full hour of work is difficult.



Things I hate about working this job:

-Ratings system: There is a combination of bug problems and extremely petty rating agents. I've been incorrectly rated several times and have reached out about it and was met with silence. They also note on the feedback page that you can be removed from the platform for "excessive feedback" so not only do they not want to fix the issues, they don't want to hear you complaining either. I was doing well at a 4.8 and then two or three undeserved 1 star ratings dropped me to the "wait-list" threshold so I figured out where the problem was and have been able to avoid those situations while I slowly climb back up to a safer rating.

-Lack of tickets: Today I've had my laptop open and signed into the dashboard for 5 hours now and I've had three or four tickets pop up only for me to click on them and all but one will say that someone else took the task. So I've worked for a grand total of thirty seconds all day which means I'm getting paid pennies for the work I've done today. I'm willing to stick it out in hopes other agents will be frustrated and give up and maybe more work will come in as the platform develops more because I love this type of work but I have to supplement it with a day job because it's definitely not going to pay my mortgage. 

You can watch the videos. You can ask management for help. You can ask a co worker to help you. You can study your task ratings. You gonna still get graded horribly. No matter how professional you sound and how much time you put into research them task rating agents will change anything just to change it or let the default message pop back on to lower your score. Oh don’t bother messaging the company to provide feedback like they say you can. They respond back in caps lock as if screaming “REFER BACK TO THE VIDEOS OF RATINGS.” You also will get waitlisted and they will claim it was by mistake. You will literally stay on the computer 8 hours straight only to get 5 tasks that all equal to 1 hr 36 minutes of work. They change dashboard daily expecting you to learn it quickly. Payment is never on time. Don’t bother trying to raise your score because you can do 15 5 star ratings and it won’t move but get 1 1 star rating and watch how you on the verge of being kicked off. So many bugs everyday that you keep getting logged off. The job is a great concept but poor management. When a company dismisses the cries of employees a hostile work environment is created which causes frustration within employee satisfaction which turns in to butchered up service being delivered. To keep it real if you enjoy teaching yourself and working for less you may like it. 

The one great thing I can say about working with Stuff is the flexibility. I can wake up at 3 am and want to get an hour in at work and it's possible that I can get a few tickets to add to my hours. Also, I'm a stay at home mom, so in between tickets I can make lunch for my daughter, or take her to the park for an hour and come back home and get back to work.

On the other hand, there is no training. They have 2-3 min videos explaining how things work and what to do for certain situations and while using your best judgement you end up getting rated very poorly no matter how hard you worked on the task. The agents that check your work don't give any explanation of what you did wrong, so in the future you can know not to make the same mistakes. Trying to keep your rating high is the main goal while working on these tasks, and a lot of time the agents that are supposed to be there to help are not available. So you end up sending the ticket in and getting a bad score. It can be very stressful and nerve wracking. Also the direct deposit always comes 3-5 days after the pay period is over.

The concept is great, and from what I see a lot of people are paying to use this app. They just need to work harder to train the employees and value the time we put in to keep the business flowing.

Starting your job with Stuff is going to be rough, they do not have a good training program. They give you a library of videos to learn the basics of the platform and from there it is up to you to learn the job. There is a lot of flexibility as you can decide how you want to work, how long you want to work, etc... new updates are pushed to the platform frequently!!! So there will be bugs, and sometimes there will be days where lots of agents are on and you struggle to get even one task.

I would say after your first two weeks of doing Stuff part-time you should know if you can be successful on the platform. I quit my old full-time job and do this job, I don't get bored because there are always new tasks and I am always learning new skills. 

After you complete a certain amount of tasks and have a certain score you are eligible for promotions to get paid more, and that opens up the ability to review other agents' tasks, create new "training" tasks, and help agents live.

Complete lack of training!  Training consisted of watching training videos which takes one afternoon, NO hands on training NO video conferencing courses to prepare you, nothing! You just watch some videos and then your on your own & expected to perform a minimum of a  4.3/5.0.  The platform Stuff Inc uses is not user friendly & confusing the direction is unclear. Also has a lot of technical issues that were very frusterating. Make a few mistakes, which is apparently how we learn to use this platform, and your rating falls below 4.3 and you are removed from the platform & put on the "wait list".  I signed up and was wait listed 3 weeks later my score was 4.2 as I was still trying to figure out the platform.  Got back on because they mistakenly judged me by the wrong score & only to be wait listed a couple of days later for a score of 4.1. The "help desk" was not very prompt or helpful and a bit sarcastic. The only thing good about this is you can work anytime you want, flexibility is great.  I worked for Stuff for 4 weeks they don't have any forgiveness for newbies. 

They tell you they start you off at $13 an hour but in reality, you don't. You get paid the amount of time you work on a task (which when you are reviewing tickets it is only cents because it only takes a few minutes to review them). So, very misleading. Second, right now I have not had work in about a week. I am not sure if they deliberately are keeping me from working on tasks or if there literally are no tasks to work on. When I contacted them, I was told that there were no tasks to work on. Third, there are a lot of bugs. Oh, and they only pay you literally once a month so make it count. I have also encountered a lot of "response" tickets (which is a simulation to train other agents) it. I believe that you are basically just working as some sort of beta tester for the website or platform as it just has so many bugs. Because once you become a chief of stuff they give you a $50 credit and tell you to download the app. to use your credit you have to open a task. So it is all an inside job really. I don't believe you are actually handling a task for a person but just for coworkers. Don't even get me started on their rating, they give you a bad rating and don't even give you proper feedback. To conclude, is not really a proper job as you barely can get any hours.


Working as a Chief of Stuff is perfect for an independent person who wants/needs flexibility in their workday (or night) and has basic technology/internet/life skills. A lot of people seem to complain about this position because they lack common sense and/or think this is a work-from-home gig where they can be lazy and still make decent money. If you have common sense, the ability to problem-solve, critical thinking/reading skills, empathy for the users you are completing tasks for, a general ability to use proper grammar/punctuation, and possess the drive to succeed solely for your individual advancement, you can and will go far with this company. You are rewarded with pay incentives for doing a good job and if you do a bad job, your rating shows it. You can work when you want to, literally 24/7, whenever works best for you. Sure, the dashboard can be glitchy but it is to be expected from a growing tech company. Account Managers are there to help when things go haywire and I feel like they want me to succeed too. This job saved me when I was laid off and couldn't find another job. I am happy to be working as a Chief of Stuff.

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